The field of the disclosure relates generally to nursing brassieres, and, more specifically, to a nursing brassiere having positionable cups.
Brassieres are designed to cover and provide support for a wearer's breasts. Brassieres typically include two cups and one or more bands that extend around a torso of the wearer to secure the cups in position. Nursing women often need to access their breasts to extract milk and/or breastfeed a baby. Accordingly, some brassieres, i.e., nursing brassieres, are configured to facilitate nursing by allowing access to the breasts without the brassiere being completely removed. For example, nursing brassieres may include cups that open up by detaching a top of the cup and pulling the cup down. However, the nursing brassieres may still interfere with access to the breast when the cups are pulled down. For example, the opened cups may lie next to or on a baby that is being nursed and interfere with the nursing process. In addition, the nursing brassieres may not adequately support the breasts when the cups are opened.
Normally, nursing brassieres are worn underneath outer garments and the outer garments must be at least partially removed for nursing. A typical method to access the nursing brassiere for nursing is to raise an outer garment and access the nursing brassiere from the bottom of the garment. However, cups on typical nursing brassieres may be difficult to open from such a position because the cups are required to be pulled down. Another method to access the nursing brassiere is to pull a neckline of the outer garment downward towards the breasts. This method leads to an issue of breast exposure. In addition, the nursing woman may have at least one hand occupied while attempting to position her garments for nursing and the nursing brassieres may be difficult to access with one or more hands occupied.
Brassiere pads can be used with brassieres to increase comfort of the brassiere, to provide a desired shape to the breast, and/or to provide additional support. For example, some brassiere pads are inserted on the inside of the brassiere cup. However, it can be difficult to access and adjust the pad within the cups of brassiere when the brassiere is being worn.
Nursing pads can be used with brassieres to absorb fluids. For example, nursing pads can be positioned in a brassiere to absorb fluids excreted from the breasts. Accordingly, some nursing brassieres include a sling for receiving the pads. However, the pads may move or fall out of the brassiere when the cups are opened for accessing the breasts. In addition, it may be difficult to access and/or adjust pads that are positioned within the cups of the brassiere.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved nursing brassiere that provides support for the wearer's breasts while providing easy access for a baby to nurse with less breast exposure.